Avak Hakobian: From Fame to Failure

By Roy Weremchuk

When conventional medicine fails, reservations about alternative healing methods disappear. This factor led to the young Armenian-Persian faith healer Avak Hakobian being invited to the USA in 1947. His mission: to heal a paralyzed Californian millionaire`s son. Then as now, charismatic healers benefit from the assumption that they have access to a mystical source or transcendent energy. Not a few people entrust such supposed healers with their physical as well as their spiritual well-being. "Avak Hakobian - From Fame to Failure" is the previously untold story of one such healer who for a time made headline news.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Release date: May 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9783753470436

Roy Weremchuk

The author Roy Weremchuk is 39 years old, of German-Canadian origin, and acquired his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology during his police academy training. He is currently Deputy Head of an investigation unit at Rheinpfalz Police Headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Previous publications: "William M. Branham (1909-1965) - Life and Teaching", Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag, Baden-Baden, 2019. "Branham's Middle Name", researchgate.net, 2020.

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2 THE VISIONS FORGE (1926–1946)

Avak Hakobian (or Hagopian¹⁰) was born on September 24th, 1926 to the Christian-Armenian family of Vartan Hakobian and Malek Kermanshah Hakobian in the village of Orgoutiouk at the foot of the extinct volcano Sabalan in Iran.¹¹ Other sources give 1927¹² as the year and Karadag, Azerbaijan as the place of his birth.¹³ These discrepancies are not surprising, since many stories and rumors about Avak¹⁴ and his origins circulated during his lifetime, making it difficult to separate the few known facts from the innumerable uncertified allegations.

The Armenian people – to which Avak belonged – had suffered similar, if not directly comparable, oppression to the Jewish people¹⁵ in the course of their history and lived largely in a diaspora without their own country.¹⁶

The Armenian population in Iran, despite its significant number,¹⁷ constituted a Christian minority in an Islamic country and as such was subject to oppression.¹⁸ Armenian Christianity, or rather the Armenian Apostolic Church, is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches and, according to its own understanding, can be traced back to apostolic times, that is, to the disciples of Jesus Christ.¹⁹

The patron saint of the Armenian people and founder of the Armenian Apostolic Church is Grigor Lusavorich (Gregory the Illuminator, 240–331)²⁰, and so the Church is also known as the Gregorian Church.²¹ A peculiarity of Christian-Armenian theology, which deviates from the consensus of mainstream Christianity, lies in its Christology, which teaches the purely divine nature of Jesus Christ (Monophysitism) rather than an equal share of divine and human nature in his person (hypostatic union).²²

The Christian faith was a unifying and therefore an integral part of the perceived identity of the Armenian minority. Avak's father Vartan was also called a devout Christian.²³

Avak had two brothers and two sisters.²⁴ Some of the names of his siblings are known.²⁵ They were Tanganoosh Hakobian (later: Karapetian, born 1938)²⁶, Harry Hakobian²⁷ and Hamparsom Hamo Hakobian.²⁸

Raised on his parents' farm in an insignificant Iranian village, Avak's childhood was not much different than that of other children of comparable origins.²⁹ According to his own assessment he only differed from the others in that he was calmer in manner.³⁰ His narcissistic problem³¹ would suggest possible parental neglect,³² if his hagiographical biography did not portray the exact opposite. He is said to have received preferential treatment within the family³³ and was freed from any work in the field or with the sheep until, at the age of seven, he himself decided to help.³⁴

It was a sudden and extraordinary event which disrupted what would otherwise have been a tranquil childhood. It was in the year 1934 or 1935 when Avak was eight years old and attending the sheep³⁵ that he is said to have received his first divine vision and with it the gift of faith healing.³⁶ The cause of this first and subsequent visions – if they are not purely fictitious – can only be found with the help of neuroscience³⁷ and is not the subject of this work.

Genuine or not, the visions were very important to Avak. Withholding any graphic description and the exact contents of his first vision, Avak in later years only remarked that from then on he had the gift of healing, which lasted until he was 13 years old.³⁸ What happened during those five years and what led to his gift disappearing is not known and is something Avak never discussed. He reported only one episode from that period: At the age of 12 there is said to have been a devastating drought in Persia, which only ended after Avak had prayed for rain.³⁹ From Avak's biography published in 1948 we learn that his grandfather Akob before him was said to have the gifts of a healer and rainmaker.⁴⁰ Although his grandfather was already dead at the time of the drought, the villagers apparently turned to the Hakobian family for help, in the belief that the gift had been passed on to one of the family members.⁴¹ Avak finally agreed to pray for rain and went to an old chapel on Mount Silan-Sar, where his intercession was apparently answered.⁴²

The climatic dryness of Iran and the resulting water crises are well-known recurring problems for the country and its population,⁴³ but there is no record of a particularly severe or long-lasting drought in 1938. This is not to say that Avak did not actually have such an experience or perceived to have had such an experience, or later simply considered it to be one of his past experiences.⁴⁴ Despite this alleged marvelous answer to prayer, Avak distanced himself from God at the age of 13⁴⁵ and lost his ability to heal.

Avak was illiterate until adulthood⁴⁶ and had not attended school, with the exception of two years’ class attendance with a village teacher.⁴⁷ He even found it difficult to write his own name,⁴⁸ but he could speak Armenian, Persian and Turkish.⁴⁹ The spread of the latter language within the Armenian cultural area and Iran can be explained by the trade relations and the expansion of the Ottoman Empire (existence: 1299–1922) between the 13th and 19th centuries.⁵⁰

Avak's poor education stood in the way of higher vocational training, and so he probably only had the choice between raising cattle or learning a trade. He left his home village and moved to relatives in the city of Tabriz (Tavriz) further southwest. His uncle worked there as an engraver and Avak stayed with him as his apprentice until he was 14 years old,⁵¹ before returning to Orgoutiouk due to the outbreak of the Second World War (1939– 1945)⁵². When his father died a few months later, Avak went back to Tabriz in search of work.⁵³ Not finding any employment there, he traveled on to his half-sister in the Iranian capital of Tehran, 328 miles away. Here, in addition to accommodation, he also found work with a copper engraver and precious metal smith,⁵⁴ for whom he would work for about three years.⁵⁵ Other sources say that he did not leave his home village for Tehran until shortly before the age of 18, that is, in 1944.⁵⁶

If we accept the account in his biography, Avak did not receive his first vision when he was eight, but rather during his time in Tehran, when he was 17.⁵⁷ For weeks a column of dazzling light is said to have fallen over his bed every night. He also fell into a trance-like state, in which he carried out engravings on his workbench with his eyes closed. Since this unsettled the other employees, Avak left and took up work in a mechanic's workshop.⁵⁸ He stayed there for about one year before he started working again as an engraver for an Armenian compatriot.⁵⁹ In October 1945, the Persian newspaper Ettelā’āt⁶⁰ took up the rumors about Avak and declared them unproven.

On December 9, 1945⁶¹ – there are articles which give incorrect ages of 16⁶² or 17⁶³ years – Avak is said to have received another vision during his work as a goldsmith or during his sleep, in which, among other things, the entire Bible was revealed to him.⁶⁴

Avak described his vision as follows: Two white doves sat on his shoulders. One is said to have spoken to him in the voice of his deceased mother and the other in the voice of Jesus Christ.⁶⁵ Avak told his audience the story of the two doves at a time when his mother had already passed away. This contradicts other statements by Avak, according to which his mother was still alive at the time. Viewed from that perspective, it is somewhat disturbing that one of the doves is said to have spoken with the voice of his mother. While the initial emphasis was on Christ appearing to him, in the years to come Avak added visions of Old Testament prophets, angels and even a hand with a sword.⁶⁶

The following version of the doves vision can be found in his biography: Avak heard a knock on the window and when he opened it, two snow-white doves flew in and sat on his shoulders. He felt the presence of Christ and was given the ability to see inside people. From then on he was able not only to recognize the seed of godliness in every human being, but also to see people’s physical ailments and illnesses.⁶⁷ For example, he allegedly saw a black spot on the lungs of a sick young woman, whose recovery he predicted.⁶⁸

More visions followed. Avak was led by a great man to

an altar in a church, which was presented to him as the Temple of Wisdom, whose source of knowledge he could access at any time. From then on Avak had the ability to read people's minds.⁶⁹ Equipped with this gift, Avak prevented his colleagues at work from committing a secretly planned theft.⁷⁰

In another vision, Avak was in a courtyard in his home village where several cripples were waiting for Christ. When Christ came, Avak fell at his feet. But Christ raised him up, pointed to a multitude of sheep scattered over the landscape and gave him the order to bring them together and to take care of His flock.⁷¹

After Christ appeared to Avak, the gift of healing returned to him. Avak later added the obligation to be celibate⁷² to his personal calling by Christ.⁷³ The biblical scriptures contain no command for the celibacy of the servants or messengers of God, not even for Nazarites (Numbers 6:1–21). Only the Apostle Paul speaks of his personal preference (1 Corinthians 7:1–9). In contrast to the Roman Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church does not necessarily require its priests to be celibate.⁷⁴

Following his supposed divine calling, Avak devoted himself entirely to the healing of the sick. The method he applied had nothing to do with conventional medicine, but, like in New Testament times⁷⁵ and like the early Pentecostal⁷⁶ healing evangelists⁷⁷ in other parts of the world, he employed the laying on of hands on the sick part of the human body and prayer.⁷⁷ Everyone that Avak touched in this way was healed from then on.⁷⁸ For example, he cured his employer from an illness by laying on his hands and prayer.⁷⁹

When the two-year-old son of a woman named Assia Ovsenian fell into a water cistern and was pronounced dead by a doctor after he was rescued, the mother and child came to the 18-year-old Avak. Avak looked at the child in silence for about 20 minutes. Suddenly he began to spit out water and came back to life.⁸⁰

The incident caused a great deal of excitement, so that the police were called. They took Avak to the police station to question him. After he was released, Avak supposedly visited the house of the former Iranian medical officer Dr. Smbad D. Eghiasarian (Sembatt Yeghiazarian 1887–1962)⁸¹ and asked him to become his spiritual mentor.⁸² Smbad Eghiasarian claimed to have been hard of hearing, or even deaf, and was cured by Avak, who stuck his fingers in Eghiasarian’s ears.⁸³ The healed man consented to Avak's request and made his house available to him as a new place of work.⁸⁴ This was probably the property at 39 Arbab Jamchit Street in Tehran.⁸⁵

It can be assumed that Avak learned not only spiritual, but also basic medical knowledge from the trained physician Eghiasarian. By this time, Avak is said to have treated up to 800 people a day and cured about 60% of them.⁸⁶ This cure rate is in striking contrast to the previously suggested 100%. In coming years, for those he was not able to cure, Avak would offer a seemingly spiritual explanation, which will be discussed later. But at that time, his reputation as a miracle healer was spreading without any apparent criticism.

The high number of supposedly healed persons came to the attention of the Tehran-based Iranian Society of Experimental Spirit Science (anjoman-e ma‘refat al-ruh-e tajrobati), founded in the mid-1920s by the physician and scholar Mirza Khalil Khan Saqafi A'lam al-Dowleh (1863–1944),⁸⁷ modeled on the French spiritualist Allan Kardec⁸⁸ (1804–1869).⁸⁹ Through Khalil Khan, spiritualism had found its way into the elite circles of Iran,⁹⁰ whose representatives believed in the compatibility of science and spirituality as well as in necromancy and reincarnation. The then director of the society, Mahmud Vahid Sa‘d (Vahid al-Dowleh⁹¹), held weekly meetings and seances and telephoned Eghiasarian and asked to meet with Avak.⁹² People with illnesses, some considered incurable, are said to have been invited to the meeting as well, and all were healed by Avak.⁹³ It is very likely that Smbad Eghiasarian had good relationships with the members of the spiritist society even before the meeting.

The increasing spread of his purported successful healings earned him the name Avak the Great, by which he became known throughout Tehran.⁹⁴

But Avak’s fame not only earned him supporters. Several Iranian doctors took offense at Avak and brought charges against him before the Chief Justice, Medjlisi, for practicing medicine without a license. Avak was then summoned before a judge. However, since he could see inside people, he told the judge that the judge had been suffering from migraines for ten years and asked whether it was forbidden to cure him. The judge agreed to a cure and Avak healed him. The judge then issued a declaration – very much as in a Persian fairy tale – that there was no penalty for practicing as a healer without a license, as long as the practitioner did not administer medication and the healing was free of charge.⁹⁵ Another complaint from the medical profession to the Iranian Ministry of Justice is also said to have been unsuccessful. According to another narrative, the court instructed Smbad Eghiasarian to review the actual supernatural abilities of Avak and to write a report on it before a judicial decision would be made.⁹⁶ The results of this instruction are not known.

Shortly after his victory before the judiciary, Avak appeared in the resorts of Darband and Shemiran (Shimran) to the north and northeast of Tehran.⁹⁷ In Darband there is said to have been an accident in which a police officer’s forearm was squashed by a heavy gate wing. Avak healed him completely.⁹⁸ The police officer’s gratitude was guaranteed, and the police chief of Tehran assured Avak of his services.⁹⁹ Avak's fame even reached the seat of the Persian monarch, the Golestan Palace. The Shah of Persia, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919– 1980)¹⁰⁰, is said to have ordered that Avak be supported in all his actions.¹⁰¹

The respect shown by the different religions, Avak’s lifelong friendship with the Chief Justice, the benevolence of the police and the favorable order of the Shah regarding Avak, as found in his biography, cannot be reconciled with later statements about his treatment in Iran.¹⁰²

Smbad Eghiasarian is said to have founded the Avak Institute under his chairmanship¹⁰³ and a hospital in Tehran soon after.¹⁰⁴ In the same year, 1946, he published an Armenian-language book on Avak and his outstanding healings from a medical point of view.¹⁰⁵ A translation of the work is said to have appeared as a serial in Arabic newspapers.¹⁰⁶ The news of the young faith healer spread like wildfire among the Armenian minority of the Middle East.

Photograph of Avak in the multilingual journal of the Iranian Society of Experimental Spirit Science from 1946.

Instructions from Avak regarding the use of his distance healings in Armenian and French, 1946.

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¹⁰ The Armenian surnames Hakobian, Hagopian, Hakobyan have a meaning similar to son of Jacob (Hakob = Jacob). The first name Avak meaning the first or great. Nicholas Awde / Emanuela Losi, Armenian First Names, Hippocrene Books, New York, NY, 2001.

¹¹ Avak's birth certificate does not exist and no other official documents from his time in Persia are known, i.e. accessible in the originals. His date of birth comes from Avak Hakobian's passport data, in which the city of Ahar, northwest of the Sabalan volcano, is listed as his place of birth. In his hagiographical biography published in 1948, March 25th 1927 and the village of Orgoutiouk are named as the date and place of birth. Presumably, this village is his actual birthplace, and Ahar found its way into the official documents as being the closest city to the village. But how did the different date of birth come about? The year can be explained by the fact that Avak wanted to make himself younger. He or his mentor Eghiasarian probably chose March 25 because they intended a reference to Jesus Christ. In the Christian calendar March 25 marks the day when the archangel Gabriel visited the Virgin Mary and announced the birth of Jesus Christ to her (see page 194).

See Passenger and Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving at Miami, Florida, 1959, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (1787–2004), National Archives at Washington, D.C., NAI Number: 2788541; Record Group Number 85. The passport was issued on October 21, 1946. See Passenger data Flight No. 969/3, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, NY (1897–1957), Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, National Archives at Washington, D.C., 1947, Microfilm Publication T715, Microfilm Roll 7344, Line 2, Page Number 378; NAI: 300346. Smbad Eghiasarian, The Life Story of Avak, Wetzel Publishing Co., Los Angeles, California, 1948, page 31 + 36. Obituary: Poughkeepsie Journal, Poughkeepsie, New York, November 21, 1990, page 2B.

¹² Smbad Eghiasarian (1948), page 31. Compare Boston Evening Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, June 5, 1947, page 6: Avak was born in Averbaijan [sic] in 1927 and was an apprentice to a goldsmith when he saw a vision.

Presumably, the mention of 1927 as the year of birth goes back to a mathematical misunderstanding, as Avak correctly stated his age as 20 when he arrived in the USA in May 1947 and the journalists therefore incorrectly assumed that he was born in 1927. However, Avak turned 21 in September 1947.

¹³ At a press conference with Avak's attendants, they reported that: Avak was born in a little town called Kharadagh in the Black Mountain region of Azerbaijan. Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, May 9, 1947, page 2. TIME Magazine also named Azerbaijan as his country of birth: Most of the Armenians in the vineyard country of Southern California had heard the story of Avak Hagopian, the goldsmith’s apprentice of Azerbaijan. Four years ago, when Avak was 16, God had appeared in a vision before him. God had given Avak the power to cure. Time Magazine, New York, NY, May 19, 1947, page 27.

¹⁴ From now on I will refer to Avak Hakobian by his first name. In newspapers etc. his first name was always used and almost never together with his surname. The majority only knew him by his first name.

¹⁵ The Jewish diaspora began with the conquest of the kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians in 597 B.C. (Babylonian exile) and reached its finality after the three Jewish uprisings against the Roman Empire, which ended in 135 A.D. with the prohibition under Emperor Hadrian (76–138) against settling in the former capital of Jerusalem. Since then, the Jews lived in dispersion and were homeless, suffering oppression and persecution over the centuries in almost all countries of the world, culminating in the genocide (Holocaust; the Jews speak of the Shoa, i.e. catastrophe) of the European Jews under the dictator of the German Reich, Adolf Hitler (1889–1945). See H. H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976.

¹⁶ Armenia, located south of the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas, is considered to be the very first Christian state. As early as 301/314 A.D., Christianity was elevated to the status of the state religion. Due to its location, it was repeatedly caught up between the fronts of the warring great powers of Rome and Byzantium in the west and Persia and Iran in the southeast. After the battle of Manzikert in 1071 A.D., the Armenians lost their territory to the Muslim Seljuq empire and from then on represented an oppressed Christian minority. From 1514, the former Armenian territory was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. When the Armenian people, after several massacres from the Turkish side, turned to the Christian Orthodox Tsarist Empire for protection, the radical Islamic Young Turks responded under the pressure of the First World War (duration: 1914–1918) with a genocide of the Armenians in 1915; referred to by the Armenians as Aghet (catastrophe). This first genocide of the 20th century reinforced the already existing diaspora. The Democratic Republic of Armenia was proclaimed in 1918, but it came to a quick end with the invasion of Soviet Russia in 1920 and only regained its independence in 1991. See Simon Payaslian, The History of Armenia: From the Origins to the Present, Palgrave MacMillian, New York, NY, 2007. Friedrich Heyer, Die Kirche Armeniens: Eine Volkskirche zwischen Ost und West, Evangelisches Verlagswerk, Stuttgart, Germany, 1978.

¹⁷ In 1945 the Armenian minority in Persia resp. Iran amounted to about 225,000 people. Melvin Ember, Carol Ember, Ian Skoggard, Encyclopedia of Diasporas, Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World, Springer Science + Business Media Inc., New York, NY, 2005, page 44.

¹⁸ Bat Ye'or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam, Associated University Press, Cranbury, New Jersey, 1985.

¹⁹ According to Armenian tradition, the apostles Thaddaeus and Bartholomew traveled from Jerusalem to the east doing missionary work in Armenia. See Leon Arpee, A History of Armenian Christianity, From the Beginning to Our Own Time, Armenian Missionary Association of America, 1946. Zaven Arzoumanian, The Origins of Armenian Christianity, Boca Raton, Florida, 2001. Alexander Agadjanian, Armenian Christianity Today, Identity Politics and Popular Practice, Routledge Publishing, New York, NY, 2016, page 233 ff.

²⁰ Gregory the Illuminator converted the Armenian king Tiridates III (the Great, 250–330) to the Christian faith in 301 and baptized him. A year later, in 302, Gregory was consecrated the first patriarch of Armenia. See Thomas J. Craughwell, Saints Preserved: An Encyclopedia of Relics, Image Books, New York, NY, 2011, page 114.

²¹ Rouben Paul Adalian, Historical Dictionary of Armenia, The Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, 2010 (2nd Edition), page 346-348.

²² The doctrine of the two natures of Jesus Christ was determined in A.D. 451 at the Council of Chalcedon, Asia Minor, and thus elevated to a principle of faith of the Western Church, which thereby distinguished itself from the Oriental Orthodox Church. In this context, the Armenian Apostolic Church convened the First Council of Dvin, Armenia in 506 A.D., followed by the Second in 554/555 A.D., and rejected the teaching of the two natures of Christ. See Shenouda M. Ishak, Christology and the Council of Chalcedon, Outskirts Press, Denver, Colorado, 2013. Zaven Arzoumanian, Theology of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, Western Diocese of the Armenian Church, Burbank, California, 2008. Rouben Paul Adalian, Historical Dictionary of Armenia, The Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, 2010 (2nd Edition), page 117 f.

²³ Eghiasarian (1948), page 36.

²⁴ He was born in Persia (Iran), a farmer’s son, he said. He was like other farm boys in his youth, only a little more quiet. He worked on the farm and, although not deeply religious, he lived a Christian life, as did his parents and two brothers and sisters. Spokane Daily Chronicle, Spokane, Washington, November 3, 1947, page 3. See also Eghiasarian (1948), page 47. In 1947 his mother and siblings were still living in Tehran. His father had died around 1940. Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, May 9, 1947, page 2.

In 1949, Avak said that both of his parents were already dead. The Post-Standard, Syracuse, New York, November 30, 1949, page 1.

²⁵ In Avak Hakobian's obituary, the siblings Tanghanooush Karapetian, Harry Hakobian and Hamo Hakobian are named. Poughkeepsie Journal, Poughkeepsie, New York, November 21, 1990, page 2B.

²⁶ Tanganoosh (alternatively: Tanghanooush) Hakobian was born in Iran on July 17, 1938. She settled in Montebello (California) in 1979. See Petition for Naturalization, August 23, 1979, Application number: 422395, Los Angeles, California. Naturalization Records, A.R. No. A309611851j, National Archives at Riverside, California, NAI No. 594890, Record Group Title 21.

²⁷ Harry Hakobian's life data could not be determined.

²⁸ Only one person with that name could be identified. This is Hamo Hakobian (alternatively: Hamparsom Hacopian), who was born in Iran on November 25, 1954, emigrated to the USA and attended Bellaire High School in Houston (Texas). Since both of Avak's parents were considered as deceased by 1949 (see footnote 24), it cannot be a brother of Avak. See Petition for Naturalization, Houston (Texas), Petition No. 63.971, A.R. No. A19040745, January 15, 1987. Naturalization Records (1852-1991), Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; The National Archives at Fort Worth (Texas). U.S. School Yearbooks (1880-2012), Bellaire High School, Houston (Texas), 1971, page 114.

²⁹ Eghiasarian (1948), page 36.

³⁰ Spokane Daily Chronicle, Spokane, Washington, November 3, 1947, page 3. See above.

³¹ In general, the narcissistic problem involves the regulation of self-esteem. In principle, this is contestable or uncertain for all people; we all suffer from it and strive to protect or stabilize it. Christoph J. Schmidt-Lellek, Charisma, Macht und Narzissmus: Zur Diagnostik einer ambivalenten Führungseigenschaft, In: Organisationsberatung - Supervision – Coaching, Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 1/2004, page 30.

³² The cause of a disturbed narcissism is usually to be found in early childhood development. E.g. due to a lack of unconditional esteem. Schmidt-Lellek (1/2004), page 30.

³³ Only Avak was somewhat markedly apart from the others, even as a child. Not only his parents, who guarded him with special care, but the neighbors too, were happy and strangely moved by the boy. Eghiasarian (1948), page 36.

³⁴ Eghiasarian (1948), page 37–38.

³⁵ [...] the youthful faith healer told a seemingly enraptured audience of his experiences as a young shepherd boy in the mountains of Persia where he first received the visions which he claimed are still recurring. The Troy Record, Troy, New York, November 23, 1949, page 11.

³⁶ In it [the planned autobiography] he will recite how at the age of eight years a vision came to him which told him that henceforth he would be endowed with an ability to cure the ailing. Avak said that this ability stayed with him until he was 13 years of age. At that time, he lost his ability until two years ago, when again a vision came to him in his sleep and ordered him to go among mankind and help to ease their burdens and to cure the ailing. The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, California, June 10, 1947, page 8.

In contradiction to the above Avak's public relations advisor, Kenneth O. Tinkham, stated to the press in October 1947 that Avak's healing abilities were first noticed at the age of 3½ years. The Minneapolis Star, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 31, 1947, page 18.

In Avak's biography published by Smbad Eghiasarian in 1948, he was said to have received the gift of healing when he was 17 or 18 years old. See Eghiasarian (1948), page 61.

³⁷ Daniel Collerton / Urs Peter Mosimann / Elaine Perry, The Neuroscience of Visual Hallucinations, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., Chichester, West Sussex, 2015.

³⁸ The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, California, June 10, 1947, page 8. See above.

³⁹ Avak allegedly worked his first miracle at the age of 12, when a deadly drought struck his native Persia. He prayed for rain and within a matter of days relief came to the parched earth from the heavens. The Troy Record, Troy, New York, November 23, 1949, page 11.

⁴⁰ Eghiasarian (1948), page 34.

⁴¹ Eghiasarian (1948), page 39.

⁴² Eghiasarian (1948), page 41–44.

⁴³ Severe drought is recognised as a feature of Iran’s climate. Mohamed Bazza / Melvyn Kay / Cody Knutson, Drought characteristics and management in North Africa and the Near East, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rom, Italy, 2018, page 85.

⁴⁴ It is very likely that the rain miracle was a pure invention and simply Avak’s attempt to distinguish himself spiritually. At first glance it may appear confusing why Avak - equipped with the gift of healing the sick – should report a rain miracle on his part instead of a miraculous healing. It was certainly an impressive example of his power of prayer, but there may also be a biblical connection that Avak purposely wanted to create for his audience. In the fifth chapter of the epistle of James, which Christian faith healers gladly used as a biblical confirmation of their practice, we read: Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. [...] The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (James 5:14–18). It is probably this connection between prayers for healing of the sick and the prayer for influencing the weather that prompted Avak to choose the rain miracle as an example, thereby comparing himself to the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, Elijah. Avak claims this happened when he was 12 years old. According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus Christ was also 12 years old when he first came into public notice (Luke 2:42–51).

⁴⁵ But Avak forsook the Lord, and it was not until some years later that he experienced another vision in Teheran, the capital of Iran. The Troy Record, Troy, New York, November 23, 1949, page 11.

⁴⁶ Unable to read or write his native tongue, Avak does have a thorough knowledge of the Bible, which he says was granted him suddenly. He is unable to speak English. Miami Daily News, Miami, Florida, March 10, 1948, page 3c.

He told the audience last night that he has never received any formal education and can neither read nor write, but he has visualized the events of the Bible from the creation to the Revelations of John. The Troy Record, Troy, New York, November 23, 1949, page 11.

⁴⁷ Eghiasarian (1948), page 46.

⁴⁸ Ibid.

⁴⁹ The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, January 21, 1948, page 19.

⁵⁰ Agoston, Gabor / Masters, Bruce, Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Facts on File Inc., New York, NY, 2009, page 51–53; 124–127.

⁵¹ Using all his spare time to help his uncle, the fourteenyear-old boy had become quite an expert engraver. Eghiasarian (1948), page 50.

⁵² For further reading see John Keegan, The Second World War, Hutchinson & Co., London, United Kingdom, 1989.

⁵³ Eghiasarian (1948), page 51.

⁵⁴ St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri, June 29, 1947, page 21.

⁵⁵ Eghiasarian (1948), page 52.

⁵⁶ He left the farm just before he was 18 and was apprenticed to a jeweler in Teheran. Spokane Daily Chronicle, Spokane, Washington, November 3, 1947, page 3.

⁵⁷ Avak was now seventeen years old. It was at this time that he had his first vision. Eghiasarian (1948), page 52.

⁵⁸ Eghiasarian (1948), page 53. Daily News, New York, NY, May 8, 1947, page 4; Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, May 2, 1947, page 1.

⁵⁹ Eghiasarian (1948), page 53. When Avak, the goldsmith and mechanic [...] Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, June 2, 1947, part 2, page 1.

⁶⁰ The Ettelā’āt is a daily newspaper of Tehran and was first published in 1926. See Nasserddin Parvin (author) in Ehsan Yarshater (Editor), Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1998, Volumw IX, page 58-62.

⁶¹ See Avak's statement in an Armenian, Arabic and Frenchlanguage pamphlet from 1946. Also: The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, California, June 10, 1947, page 8. Two years ago.

The Los Angeles Times reported in May 1947 that Avak had been devoting himself to faith healing for 3 years. Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, May 7, 1947, page 1. Two days later there was talk of four years: Some four years ago. Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, May 9, 1947, page 2. Five years ago. The Post-Standard, Syracuse, New York, November 30, 1949, page 1.

⁶² First, a brief history of Avak. He was born in Azerbaijan, Persia in 1927. As a boy he was an apprentice goldsmith. Avak became a faith healer after he had a ‘vision‘ at the age of 16, while working at his goldsmithing. The Tampa Daily Times, Tampa, Florida, October 20, 1947, page 2.

⁶³ At the age of 17, Avak reported he had a vision in which God instructed him to go all over the world, and he gave up his employment as a jeweler’s apprentice. The Minneapolis Star, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 31, 1947, page 18.

⁶⁴ The conversation with him, emanated through an interpreter, proved him to have been the humble, illiterate son of an indigent widow, who had at the age of 16 been visited by a supernatural being and endowed with the complete knowledge of the Bible and the gift of healing, similar to the experience related by Brother Branham. The Voice of Healing, Shreveport, Louisiana, April 1948, page 4. See also: The Troy Record, Troy, New York, November 23, 1949, page 11. See footnote 46.

In an alternative report it is stated that he only read the Bible: A well-educated man, Avak has read only the Bible in the way of books. The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, January 21, 1948, page 19.

⁶⁵ There, two white doves alighted on either of Avak’s shoulders, one speaking to him in the voice of his dead mother and the other in the voice of Christ, he said. The voices told him to preach the word of the Lord and heal those who have faith. The Troy Record, Troy, New York, November 23, 1949, page 11.

⁶⁶ The Post-Standard, Syracuse, New York, November 30, 1949, page 1 + 8.

⁶⁷ Eghiasarian (1948), page 55.

⁶⁸ Eghiasarian (1948), page 56.

⁶⁹ Eghiasarian (1948), page 58.

⁷⁰ Eghiasarian (1948), page 58–59.

⁷¹ Jesus Christ is said to have instructed Avak: Bring them together and go tend my flock. Eghiasarian (1948), page 60.

⁷² Avak followed on the witness stand. When he was 17, he said, he worked as a silversmith and mechanic in Persia. ‘I had a good income, I have good job‘, he said. ‘At that time the Lord came to me, the Christ, and he starts talking to me in visions. At that time He said: ‘You are going to serve me. Your are not going to marry.‘ I promised Him yes. I’m not going to marry. From that time my life is a sacrifice.’ The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, July 30, 1954, page 14A.

⁷³ Poughkeepsie Journal, Poughkeepsie, New York, February 17, 1985, page 11 A.

⁷⁴ The Armenian Apostolic Church has married and celibate priests, so-called Abegha (monk priests). Only the latter can hold the office of bishop. Heyer (1978), page 52.

⁷⁵ Praying for the sick: „Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." Epistle of James 5:14.

„It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him." Acts of the Apostles 28:8.

⁷⁶ The Pentecostal movement seeks to promote the gifts of the Holy Spirit poured out upon believers at Pentecost as described in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 (in the year 33 AD). These gifts include, among others, the healing of the sick by means of prayer and the laying on of hands,